My small town of 12,000 at least has a hospital, but the only reason it’s still open is that it’s only facility for the eastern half of the county, which has mountain vacationers and a large farming population.
All the Dollar stores specialize in being in remote / rural areas where they have a lock. Kind of like a micro Wal Mart.
They show up in the very smallest towns of just a few thousand people.
I wonder if DocGo uses PAs physician assistants and NPs nurse practitioners as mid level providers to increase their staffing ability to provide care?
Very practical
Medicine. I like it. Concierge.
Greatest health care system in the world!
Yeah, right.
Most expensive in the world more like it.
I’m a bit surprised that others like Walmart, etc haven’t done
the same. You wouldn’t want life or death situation but minor
things could be addressed. Once started I’m sure the wait time
may become an issue.
DocGo to test whether they could draw more customers and tackle persistent health inequities.
No one is addressing my health inequalities, ie my healthcare ain’t free.
I formerly worked for a rural health system and advocated just such a program. At the time, it wasn’t technically and economically feasible (our EHR at the time wouldn’t have been able to handle it primarily, but the cost of the equipment was pretty high - if Starlink had existed, it would have cut the cost way down).
I advocated using church parking lots rather than Dollar General, but both have merit, I think.
There are a lot of people in rural areas who just can’t easily get across the county (or counties) to a clinic. Sometimes transportation is an issue (we explored getting a bus but in a big county that cost adds up and the time to collect a dozen or so people and then take them back could be enormous). Sometimes it’s just an unwillingness to leave their property for the whole day. Some people are too disabled. Some are remote and don’t have anyone close by to assist or watch their farm when they leave.
The thinking was to bring the clinic to them to at least get them basic evaluations and care, maybe prescriptions and even supplemental nutritional assistance. Even the most reclusive seemed to find a way to church at least occasionally, so we thought putting a mobile clinic at each church - maybe even on a Sunday - once or twice a year made a lot of sense. Then we figured we could arrange them to be picked up for follow up or outpatient if they had complications beyond the mobile clinic’s capacity and maybe get local social services to help with any other needs they have.
Other than x-rays, we could pretty much have duplicated one or two examination rooms in an RV or schoolbus-sized vehicle with enough supplies and staff to make it work. The terrain was another big stumbling point - you can’t always get a vehicle like that down the roads and getting stuck would mean a wrecker from several hours away. 4x4 on a vehicle of that size would up the cost significantly if even practical.
But a mobile clinic makes a lot of sense in a rural area.